“.. The Government’s threat to freeze Radio NZ’s funding has prompted a fresh round of voices calling to protect the state broadcaster’s “DNA” and fight against commercialism.
Its bosses say less money risks meaning less quality.
When the red emergency phone rang at Radio New Zealand’s Wellington studio last weekend, the broadcaster was handed a golden chance to silence the critics.
Amid vociferous debate about whether the organisation needs or deserves more public funding, they couldn’t have engineered a better illustration of the value of a public service broadcaster.
Morning Report presenter Sean Plunket was dragged in from his leisurely Sunday morning and programmes were ditched for fulltime, up-to-the minute coverage of the tsunami threat after Chile’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
Civil Defence Minister John Carter even applauded their coverage on air.
Meanwhile, TV3 was broadcasting stirring hymns followed by Julie Hadden’s impressive weight loss story ..
.. and TV1 squeezed half-hourly tsunami updates between scheduled programming ..
.. at least once including a map featuring long-past wave surge timings..”
go to source/story>>Radio NZ: Endangered species | Stuff.co.nz
